I know the easy solution. I know what the easy excuse is and I know what many believe is the easy way out and that is to fire Franz Smuda and start all over again with a new coach, because, we still have four matches left in 2010 which is a decent amount of matches before our final year of warm-ups prior to us hosting the European championships in the summer of 2012.
But, you can’t blame it all on Smuda. And, firing him, will not solve anything. The problem goes much deeper then just who is making the selections for the national side or which tactics we are using in our games. The problem goes way beyond Smuda’s control. Poland has a real problem and there is no coach in the world who can fix our mess.
As Smuda sat in the post-match press conference with a smile, he even told the reporters, that he will always smile, “defeat will not change that” he said. Smuda said the truth after the game, said Poland is far behind, and the talent level is just not there. He asked the press room “You want me to get new defenders? But i ask, who?” Which, may hurt some people, but is the truth. We play our best defenders we have, and as Smuda said, “If our defenders commit such simple mistakes, we will always lose”.
Polish defenders made a lot of errors today. Especially Kamil Glik, but also Maciej Sadlok. But, don’t kid yourselves if you don’t think they are our best that we have, because they are. Both have struggled much in their last two games for Poland, but is it because their lack of talent or is their preparation so awful? Both of these are in their own class in the Ekstraklasa, yet, get shown up when they play a elite opponent. Thankfully, Glik is in Italy, maybe he will stay there and learn a lot. Sadlok remains in Chorzow. The same problem awaits our other young defenders, who have a easy time in Poland, but when they step onto the national team level, they are not prepared and force many errors. Same problem faces Tomasz Jodlowiec, who, is a star in Poland but struggles for the national team, which has many clubs shy away from him due to his poor outings for Poland. Another example is Grzegorz Wojtkowiak, defender from Lech, who, has been one of the better players so far this year for Poznan, struggled a lot today. He was too slow and couldn’t keep up with Cameroon. He was subbed out for an undisclosed injury, but you could just tell while he was in there, that he couldn’t stop the attack, he wasn’t ready for a game of this pace and speed.
Player responsibility and player fitness levels are the most important for a national team. Players need to know their roles, players need to want to be stars. What Poland plays, is awful football. Not the tactics, but the players. Poland makes simple mistakes that mid-table club teams should be doing, not the best of the best the nation has to offer. It’s not just on defense. It’s the whole team.
Take note at how Robert Lewandowski plays for Borrusia Dortmund and see the goals he is scoring there. He’s becoming a player with rock star status in Dortmund, yet, he just struggles to score for Poland. Lewandowski now has played 24 times for Poland, yet has only scored 6 goals. When he scored in the 61st minute in a 2-0 win over Bulgaria, Poland has not scored in 398 minutes. The team went scoreless against Finland and Serbia, then lost to Spain prior to the world cup and now, yesterdays 0-3 defeat to Cameroon.
In Dortmund, Lewandowski doesn’t have to battle for every yard inside the box. He doesn’t have to worry about more then his role, because he has trust in his teammates, who complete many tasks, quickly and brilliantly, setting up the next guy. He uses too much energy just to fight for position, or to fight to get the ball. It’s not smooth football. Just as Lewandowski does for his teammates, they all work together. Poland however, does not, it’s a one for all type of team. Players are much less skilled and can’t play at the world speed, thus making everyone’s job much tougher.
You can’t blame Smuda for that. You can’t blame Smuda for making simple plays turn into mistakes which cost us
goals. Those are all things that these players should be ready for by development in the Polish youth and with their clubs. The problem here isn’t bad tactics or calling the wrong players, because we do call the right players up, but our best players are just not that good.
I have no doubts that Poland will rise once again. As bad as we are, Poland has yet to hit rock bottom. Until they hit rock bottom, I am not sure much will change, and it doesn’t matter who the head coach is. It could be Smuda, Peter Nowak or a foreign coach, it just wouldn’t matter. The poor training and fitness levels of the Polish league would still exists. The poor passing our players have will still be there. For years, Polish strength used to always be our ball possession and excellent passing. For the past six years, those areas Poland has started to struggle in, to a point where it’s almost hopeless watching the offense play.
If we hit rock bottom, things will change at the top. The people who run PZPN need to all be removed. People who will make sure our clubs in Poland have set higher standards for their players and their clubs need to be put in place. More money has to be put into our youth systems. Better training facilities need to be build all across Poland, for clubs to use and for Polish youth academies to use. The development of Polish youth is terrible right now. There is no reason why all the Polish clubs were all bounced out of their European cups in a easy fashion. The fitness levels of the Polish league clubs is a joke, compared to rest of Europe. Even Artur Wichniarek said so when he joined Lech Poznan, he couldn’t believe that he was better fit then most players, and he’s at the end of his career. Our youths have a much less standard then they are supposed to have. The people up top are not doing their job, which makes it incredibly hard for Smuda to do his.
Lost in all the mess in today’s horrid result, are two other bad results, both, just more examples of where Polish football is headed. Poland U23 team lost today 0-2 to Northern Ireland and finished in 3rd out of 4 in their group, while Poland U19 team lost 1-3 to Sweden. This is an indication that all of our programs are failing right now. And each of these teams does have it’s fair share of good players, but when teamed up with the rest of the guys, their talents are useless.
And that is not Smuda’s fault.
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Good blog… unfortunately this book has been written before and the end result is embarrassment in 2012. It’s sad, it’s not all Smuda’s fault sure. One thing i don’t like about him is how he wanted to mimic Barcelona’s style of play prior to the World Cup. Than watching how sexy the Germans looked and after how we got demolished 6-0 by Spain, Franz decided that we should mimic the Germans. This isn’t FIFA 10, you can’t just become a manager and switch the style like that. I can make Lewandowski look like Messi in FIFA 10, that doesn’t mean that will happen in real life.
Biggest problem is the bozo’s sitting up top. Getting rich and going on vacations with the NT…
The fact is Lukasz, because of Smuda’s own personality deficiencies some of the BEST Polish internationals are NOT being called up! His own controversial statements that he has made have shown him to be a person of all sass and no substance. I mean, prior to being appointed selekjioner he spoke almost evangelically about how players with drinking problems should never be allowed to play for the Kadra, and yet in his first squad he recalled Dudka and Zewlakow, who were rightly axed by Majewski after the dismal failure in the WCQ! Not a week or month went by when we would hear some more jibes from Franz’s mouth (‘Boruc looked pregnant in his most recent photo’, ‘Where is Smolarek? You tell me!’ or ‘Roger Guerreiro will never play for Poland again’). Basically what you have here is a coach who has a rigid idea of who are the right players to call up and is in a way disrespectful to other players. When you have a coach like that, it’s conceivable that some of the players will not want to play for him or won’t enjoy playing under him.
Nobody is saying that all is well in Polish football, the PZPN as we all know is rotten to the core and needs a shake-up. But these things cannot mask the clear deficiencies in the manager’s ability to do his job, and if he is also happy to play the blame game then it’s clearly a case of sour grapes. It’s also ridiculous for him to say that the players he currently has are the best available. IS Lukasz Fabianski, soon to be Arsenal’s no.3, a much better option in goal than Wojciech Kowalewski, Lukasz Zaluska or Arkadiusz Onyszko? Why not bring in someone like Mariusz Jop or Arkadiusz Glowacki to at the very least add some more experience and know-how to the back four? And if there are no better midfielders who can play as well as Roger Guerreiro, then Smuda has no excuse for not picking him! Likewise, if Ebi Smolarek can get back amongst the goals at Polonia Warsaw, he MUST be brought back! Good coaches must select their players on merit, But Smuda has shown himself only to be interested in going for younger players in an attempt to build a team for the ‘future’. It’s fine to do that, but not at the cost of the team in terms of compromising on the overall quality and losing games as we’ve seen.
Coaching a national side is never an easy job, but we must all realise that just as coaches are rightly given credit for the success of any side, they must also accept blame for the team’s failures. Smuda has a real job on his hands and he needs to really consider what will be good for the team NOW, and not 2-4 years down the line. And I will say this, if he is unable to improve the team’s fortunes by the end of this year, he must be sacked. I’m sure that unlike England’s FA with Fabio Capello, the PZPn will NOT be finacially bound to keep Franz in the job for long.
Possible replacements? Try Henryk Kasperczak! Or maybe bring back Majewski, who for all his faults was at least able to bring back some sort of pride in the team’s performances!
The problem with what you’re saying is, Polish is not a good league. Fabianski is 3rd goalkeeper in Arsenal after they sign someone new which but in Poland he would be the top keeper in the league. Fact, he’d get playing time, but does that make him a better choice? The #1 keeper must be Boruc i think. And, i have NOT agreed with much Smuda has done, and i was very anti his hiring, however, my point is, firing coaches left and right to try to put a “band aid” on our problems before Euro 2012 is not right. Smuda has a plan. We need to see it through, and if it fails, it will get ugly for our nations soccer team.
ps. Kasperczak shouldn’t be anywhere near contention to coach the team. He ruined my team (Gornik), has been bad for Wisla for years. Long time ago (Zurawski, Kosowski, Uche, Kuzba days) he got away with a lot of stuff due to talent on his team. I dont think he would be good for Poland.
Not sure any coach in Poland is worthy of being the head coach… Jan Urban maybe. Ryszard Tarasiewicz one day will be a great coach i think, just not now. After Euro 2012 i think he will gain a lot of momentum.
I think you forget that Zaluska happens to be the new No.1 at Boruc’s new club Celtic and will only benefit from regular playing time domestically and Europe! Good enough for Artek, good enough for Zaluska! Let Smuda see how well he performs over the season. And Boruc, for whom the jury should still be out after his dreadful antics in the WCQ, is in a similar boat as the foolish Jerzy Dudek, having just joined Fiorentina to try and compete with the world-class French international Sebastien Frey who is already the established No.1! What’s the guarantee that he’ll get playing time? It’s one thing to emphasise on how important it is for players to be playing regularly, only to go for guys who themselves cannot get a game. That’s incongruous, enough said! I know that the standard of the Ekstraklasa isn’t good, but then why does Smuda seem only too happy to pick players from that division? Like I’ve said, selection should be on form and merit in equal measure!
I mentioned Kasperczak because he at least has some international experience having worked with the Tunisia team which he took to the 1998 World Cup finals among others. I understand though that maybe he has some failings at club level, but at least he will know a lot about the Polish structure.
As for Smuda’s ‘plan’, I must be blunt and say that Poland needs to WIN games before the plan can work and that we’re not in a position to wait and hope. At the end of the year, Smuda must go! I wouldn’t mind another foreigner coming into the team, and it would also help if a former Polish international with fluency in English will be the new man’s deputy!
While Zaluska started this past weekend for Celtic, i don’t think he will be their long term #1. If he is, that changes a lot. I know they have been rumored with about 2-3 keepers and still have some time to sign one. We’ll see.
As for our argument about Boruc, i just read right now that Smuda will call Boruc up for his September matches.
Artur has indeed been called up. as has Glowacki and Boesnich, for the matches against Ukraine and Australia. Maybe the Euro 2008 star has shedded some weight! We’ll see how the team performs with a new injection of experience!